1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of printing by a print apparatus via a hot folder.
2. Description of the Related Art
A photographic processing system has conventionally been known as a system which prints a photograph captured by an image capture apparatus such as a digital camera. This photographic processing system inputs image data to be printed first, prints an image using this data, and performs a post-print process, thereby creating a photographic print to be printed. Upon designation of image data to be printed, this photographic processing system performs various print settings, and then stores image data and a setting information file in a folder called a “hot folder”.
In a general hot folder, the user (client or operator) copies a file entity (content data) to be printed into the hot folder by copy and paste or drag and drop (Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-222661).
In another known technique, a job ticket describing an address (for example, a URL) indicating a location is accepted instead of a file entity (content data), and the file entity is separately acquired from a hot folder, thereby instructing to form an image (Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-257157).
However, in the technique described in the above-mentioned patent literature 1, especially when large-sized print data is submitted to a hot folder, it takes much time to copy a file into it, so the user cannot perform other operations until copy is completed, and the operation slows down.
In the technique described in patent literature 2, when the entity of a file indicated by an address described in a job ticket cannot be accessed from a hot folder due to factors associated with a network, the file entity cannot be acquired from the hot folder.
Also, during running of a hot folder application, even when the printer used is changed to a type having data reference capability so that the printer is ready to acquire data, the printer cannot actually acquire the data.
Moreover, when, for example, the printer has data reference capability and acquires data, it cannot efficiently print if its amount of HDD usage or its amount of jobs exceeds its limit.